Latest News at AE???
 

What is going on over at eagle??? What the latest word on the street regarding the AA selling AE? Any airplanes coming or leaving? How many are they going to hire from summer 08 till end of 08? Upgrades still running 7yrs? Still little unclear about choosing yours base at LAX, is it not being offered anymore (i have read "yes" and "no"), if so will it be the saab?

Thinking of applying there, but the airline seems to be stuck with no growth and the upgrades are running wayyyy to long.

Anyways any info would be great.

Thanks in advance

The most recent newhires from my flight school got ORD........

Ding ding! That pretty much sums it up. No more news from the Mothership lately either.

Might not be a bad gig for 6-12 months if you can leave and fly for someone better..........

must be 21 to work there...no exceptions, I know that much.

they're making the low timers (i.e below 800/100) go to a RJ standardiztion course in FL and sign a 18 month/$10,000 contract.

My buddy is down there now and they claim that upgrade time by the time he is finished with training will be around 4-5 years.....BUT NO ONE REALLY KNOWS

Upgrade time will not be 4-5 years until someone actually upgrades in 4-5 yrs.... and that just isn't going to happen any time soon. The last bid had over 150 FO vacancies in just DFW/ORD, close to 200 system wide, with only about 20 CA vacancies. And some of the CA's won't be backfilled.

I definitely wouldn't come here "hoping" the upgrade will come down "soon" regardless of what anyones friend in training/brother/cousin/gardner/roomates-ex-sister-in-law's-boyfriend "thinks" *might* happen.

Heres an idea: pick a company that you want to work for (not always the quickest upgrade). Do some research and try to figure out what airline best fits your needs.

Everybody (including me) wants to upgrade in 1 year, but why not consider a place because you want to become a productive employee and gain experience in the right seat. This business is fickle and you may very well end up for quite a while at whatever airline you pick so keep that in mind.

The upgrade is long at Eagle it has been for a while. Maybe it will come down maybe not. But don't forget a guy/girl at 25 has 40 years of flying ahead. Don't destroy your future by settling for a bottom feeder airline- especially because you may end up stuck there.

If you are a flight instructor applying at the minimums then realize you have alot to learn and even if you could upgrade in a year you wouldn't be ready.

Im sure someone will point out that it's easy for me to say this because im stuck at Eagle, but believe it or not I'm proud to work here. I like who I work with and I like what I do- thats the important part. Good luck finding what you're looking for.

You said it. Everyone is willing to go to these crap airlines thinking "I'll get my time and get out". Six years later they are a captain with terrible pay and QOL "waiting for the call" from their favorite major.

Get in where you can upgrade quicky (Multi engine turbine pic) and then get out*. QOL, work rules and crew meals don't mean squat switch to your future major airline's hiring board.

At the interview for your major airline, if you have to answer the question: "You were a captain at ABC airline, why did you leave to become a first officer at DEF airline?"
Choose any words, "broaden my experience, different aircraft, different region of the country, type of flying, etc." you'll do just fine.
Don't say "for the QOL, work rules and crew meals."

*move on to bigger or better equipment if possible

LAX is not open for choosing at the interview. If you want LAX try to get the SAAB in DFW and then put in a Transfer. You just might have it by the time training is over. Arbitration for the flowthroughs, I beleive, comes due in April or May. The result of that descision will tell us a lot about the future upgrade situation. As it stands now, we arent expecting huge things from the arbitrator, but the possible sale could stir things up pretty good.

If you have not yet, look at the other threads under the regional section regarding AE. They have some fairly current, accurate info. As for your questions, I will try to answer some of them as directly and unbiased as possible.
Peter Bowler (sp?) "said" (for what its worth) that the selling, if at all, should be announced by Nov.
I don't know of any new planes coming online but I do know from one of our instructors and many flying the line on the Saab that some of them might be taken out of service. It had something to do with mx servicing them with the wrong hydraulic fluid and it costing too much to replace the entire hyd system. So that's up in the air!...
Last year HR planned on 700 new hires and only got around 350. This year the goal is the same. We'll see if they try to compensate for last year or just fall short again.
If you are one of the ones looking for LAX, get in line. sorry but it is a very senior base and the only hope of you getting it is by chance being the most senior guy AND they happen to offer it when the time comes. Those spots fill up faster than they can hand them out.. literally.

Is MIA back on the table as a choice?

I had a conversation wih an ex-Eagle guy. He flew the ERJ right seat, he's at NetJets Int'l. He hired on in 2007, he says he had no int'l experience, no G-IV/V type, and no internal recomendations. He applied, they called, and he got on.

Good for him, I'm just wondering how that hell he managed to do that, rumor going around NJI has 14000 resumes on file.

maybe he's got Mojo

Some Numbers for those interested from the Feb 18 2008 sen list and Feb bid awards:

Current Jr CA is for San Juan ATR - DOH 9/00
138 Flowbacks left on seniority list awaiting recall to AA
172 FOs between Jr CA and 1/1/04 DOH
201 FOs with 2004 DOHs
98 FOs with 2005 DOHs
208 FOs with 2006 DOH
429 FOs with 2007 DOH
91 FOs with 2008 DOH

Assuming all flowbacks are recalled by next Feb, the junior CA mark should be within 50 numbers of a 2004 DOH (5 years seniority). To keep upgrades at 5yrs AE would have to upgrade 201 FOs in 2009, 98 in 2010, 208 in 2011, etc.

That's a lot of new aircraft orders. Oh wait, Eagle has none...

I live in Miami. My Instruments instructor applied for Eagle on December. He was offered the job but he needs to be at 120hrs multi time before starting. He asked for MIA and it was given to him. Our Chief Instructor is a Captain for Eagle (he has been for the last 11 years). He had 5 years without logging time as PIC on the ATR (In MIA as well). Every time i ask him how is Eagle? he replies: "..Best place in the world to work for, hope to stay here for the next 17 years.." (he is 48).

However he just bought a logbook... and he just started to log PIC time again :D

If MIA is not being offered (I don't know honestly) you can always take SJU and commute until you can transfer. For what its worth a couple of months ago my friends on the rock were getting dead-headed to cover flights out of MIA so there was a shortage then but I can't speak for this very moment. All you have to do is ask recruiting if MIA is open, they know better than any of us since they send you there.

Yes, if you are SJU based on reserve you may be assigned MIA trips. I know I was several times back in the day.

And if you really want to, if you are SJU based and live in MIA, you can bid for MIA trips as OT all you want. MIA and SJU are actually on the same, separate Executive certificate (not the Eagle certificate), so there is no problem.



That's just plain sad...

is there a training contract with eagle???

i just read another post regarding eagle, you have to sign an 18mo contract for 10k. (rj transition course if tt<800)

Where are you now?

Took a Saab CA job at Colgan. Not nearly as professional as Eagle over here, in every sense of the word. But PIC time is PIC time. Hopefully, I will do my time here and get out and on with things.